Level Of Personal Development Research Articles

Personality and Consumer Behaviour: An Operational Approach

Presents a report on the promising preliminary results of the Q project at Kent State University to operationalize the personality organization from psychoanalytic object relations theory for empirical research on consumer behaviour using the California Q Sort. The validation process is well under way. As a future extension of this research, presents the template matching technique for relating the personality to a general pattern of behaviour by relating these patterns of behaviour to variations in the level of personality development, thereby paving the way for an application to the critical social issues of addictive and compulsive behaviour.

Migration and Health

Investigation of migration and health often forces us to acknowledge that the types of migration (international, internal, and residential) interact with each other as well as other population parameters such as the age/sex structure, sexual activity, fertility, mortality, and family structure. Research on migration is often obscured by these interactions. In fact, the adoption of a health perspective in the design of migration research represents a substantial improvement over traditional approaches that are based on distinctions among the various types of population movement. This is because a health perspective treats population movement as a dynamic process by which individuals are related to specific locations by reason of their participation in human networks. In other words, migration is regarded as a human process rather than a discrete event, and accordingly, it becomes less important to describe the individual's involvement with human networks and the institutions sustaining them. The use of a health perspective in migration research often calls our attention to the ways in which the types of migration are interconnected. For example, a migrant from Mexico might exhibit considerable internal mobility and may circulate between Mexico might exhibit considerable internal mobility and may circulate between Mexico and the US over several years until he develops enough contacts in the US to settle in a particular community in which his personal contact with human networks and place-specific institutions are conducive to settlement. Through him, family members may attach to the community. In the process, they all encounter health risks, make demands on the health care system, change the demographic/health characteristics of both sending and receiving places, sometimes act as transmitting agents of disease to those with whom they interact and, undergo changes in their levels of personal development and well-being. A research perspective that investigates these processes will consider all of the types of movement and characterize them as dynamic processes rather than as discrete events. The articles in this issue all touch on the ways in which migration can affect the health of migrants, and show the circle range of ways migration and health are interrelated. A special introductory note also suggests Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) should receive special attention in the study of this interrelationship. The uneven distribution of AIDS is heightening concern about the health implications for receiving countries.

Levels of personality development

Dabrowski's Theory of Emotional Development provides a basis for understanding potential for higher level development in gifted children and adults. Dabrowski proposed five levels of development, each with a unique personality organization. In this article, a new coding system for assessing levels is presented, based on categories that reflect feelings toward values, self and others. Examples from actual data are provided to illustrate these categories. The results of a study to test the reliability of this coding system are discussed, along with implications for counseling gifted adolescents, based on this model.

THE OUTCOMES OF REENTRY EDUCATION: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN MIDDLE‐AGED AND OLDER WOMEN GRADUATES

This study investigated factors related to personal and professional development in mature (age 35 and over) reentry women graduates. Questionnaire data were gathered from 109 graduates of 8 liberal arts colleges in Iowa. The strongest correlates of rated level of personal development were: (a) support from classmates; (b) desire for intellectual stimulation; (c) desire for a career identity; and (d) desire for a meaningful role. The strongest correlates of rated level of professional development were: (a) helpfulness of financial aid; (b) desire for a career identity; (c) desire for job preparation; (d) desire for a meaningful role; and (e) desire for achievement. Multiple regression showed that support from classmates and desire for intellectual stimulation were equally good predictors of perceived personal development, and that desire for a career identity was the only predictor of perceived professional development. Implications of the findings for educators, counselors, and reentry women are discussed.

Psychosexual problems and infertility.

The modus operandi of a sexual dysfunction clinic in Dublin is described in detail. An analysis is made of the consequences which non-consummation have on a couple especially in relation to the deepest levels of personality development. The route to maturity is different from those couples who enjoy normal intercourse.

The teacher-Child interaction Project

Since 1969, there has been a slow, but steady, increase in the number of studies which have attempted to apply behavioural methods within the British school setting. The variety of papers reported in this volume attest to the wide level of current interest. Many reviewers of American experience (e.g. Sherman and Bushell, 1975;O'Leary and O'Leary, 1972) show that both academic and classroom behaviours have been investigated, and there is a general agreement that the aim of behavioural intervention is not necessarily to make children “be still, be quiet and be good” (Winnett and Winkler, 1972). Rather, the aim is to help the classroom teacher to use the ongoing teacher-child interaction in a deliberate, positive way so as to foster the optimum level of personal development and academic attainment in her pupils. This paper draws on our experiences of the past four years of training groups of teachers in behavioural management, and concentrates on some of the important issues involved in ensuring that behavioural intervention of the highest quality can be offered to teachers in schools.

RELATIONSHIP OF ROD-AND-FRAME TEST PERFORMANCE TO TWO DIMENSIONS OF THE PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

Gittinger's Personality Assessment System (Winne, 1966) posits chree levels of personality development. The most fundamental level is assumed to be innace and is defined as the primitive personality type. When expression of primicive tendencies elicits negative reinforcement from the social environment, it is further assumed that the developing child learns contrasting modes of functioning. The primitive profile overlaid by these unconscious compensations constitutes the basic level of personality. The basic personality is usually well defined by early adolescence, but it is not until early adulthood that che sarfuce level stabilizes. This level of functioning corresponds to the traditional persolta and represents the individual's conscious efforts to modify basic tendencies in accordance with some ideal self. Personality at all three levels is defined by the configuration of chree dimensions, two of which are considered in the present study. The first of these describes che individual's functioning in the mechanical-procedural domain and is called the Regulated-Flexible dimension. According to Winne ( 1966, p. 5), the Regulated individual is logical and literal, seeing the world in ordered 'blacks and whites.' Although the elements of his conceptual world are therefore highly differentiated and organized, they are relatively insulated from one anocher. This imparts a certain rigidity to his behavior, manifested in such qualities as stimulus-boundness, intolerance for ambiguity, and a facility for rote memorization without understanding. In concrast, the Flexible individual is intuitive and imaginative and responds fluently to a wide range of stimuli. This ideational and perceptual fluency, however, is unrestrained by intellectual

BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROCESS AND REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENICS IN A MONOTONOUS REPETITIVE TASK.

Process and reactive patients as well as nonpsychotic and normal Ss were tested on a prolonged repetitive task which allowed for thousands of variations in response. All Ss were tested under instructions to produce as many different responses as they could. The data were analyzed in terms of type and manner in which the responses were produced, and the responses were classified into a number of categories which represented differing degrees of change. Process patients differed from the other 3 groups in that their responses were more stereotyped and more resistant to change. The reactives did not differ in their performance from the nonpsychotics and normals. When schizophrenic patients with poor premorbid adjustment (process) are compared with those whose premorbid adjustment is good (reactives) several consistent differences between these two groups are obtained.2 In their responses on a variety of psychological tests (Becker, 1956; Fine & Zimet, 1959; Kan tor, Wallner, & Winder, 1953; Kan tor & Winder, 1959) reactives generally exceed process patients in level of personality development, and the behavior of the two groups differs in a variety of laboratory tasks (Reisman, 1960; Smith, 1959; Zlotowski & Bakan, 1963).

Some Social Functions of Kutchin Anxiety1

A NXIETY may be defined as a generalized rise in tension or, to paraphrase H. S. Sullivan, a drop in euphoria, in anticipation of pain or deprivation. The anticipatory aspect of and its diffuse nature are central both to the ordinary common-sense meaning of the term (Homans 1941:164n) and its clinical usage (e.g., Freud 1936:112n). Goldstein (1939), Sullivan (1946, 1948) and Cameron (1947), among other psychologists, distinguish from fear by the diffuse nature of the former; their definitions all stress the vagueness of cognitive structure as one of the central factors in anxiety, a factor directly-if not ultimately-responsible for the helplessness which is an integral part of any experience of strong anxiety (Hanfmann 1950 64). Students of society have seen as a condition of disorganization wherein the individual requires the support or the discipline provided by social control; they have also found to be in itself a driving force for social control. Thus Malinowski's theory of magic explains magical ritual as a means for reducing arising from the inadequacy of realistic techniques for controlling the forces of nature (1935; 1948:12-14, 60; Homans 1941). Nativistic movements have been viewed as mechanisms for relieving resulting from drastic sociocultural change (Gillin 1942; Linton 1943; Hallowell 1945). On the other hand, from Kierkegaard-if not earlier-to the psychoanalysts it has been asserted that is a great teacher. Whiting (1941) has shown specifically how it plays a part in the enculturation process. Hallowell (1941) has indicated its social value in another context, where antisocial behavior is inhibited through techniques for intensifying anxiety. Hallowell's contributions to the study of both social aspects of are based upon researches among American Indian cultures of the northern Woodland area. The purpose of this paper is to indicate how, among another northern American Indian people, the Kutchin, may serve as a positive social force, enhancing group cohesion, even though it is not acted out in a shared ritual. At the same time, certain characteristics of Kutchin status relationships are noted which may operate centripetally in situations where, among peoples of very similar culture, entirely centrifugal tendencies have been described. A high level of free-floating has been observed among Indians of the American boreal forest. This has been seen as reaction to the threat of traumatic situations such as hunger or disease with which the cultures in question are unable adequately to cope (Landes 1937:88; Hallowell 1946:225).2 On the level of personality development, the generalized and disproportionate